IMEA
Electric Efficiency Program for Commercial/Industrial and Public-Sector Projects
Restarts

After a brief hiatus for retooling, the IMEA Electric Efficiency Program
for Commercial/Industrial and Public-Sector projects opened for the FY2016-17
program year in mid-June with the pre-application for lighting projects posted
to the Electric Efficiency Program Web page at http://www.imea.org/EEProgram.aspx.

Plans are to have separate applications for each ‘family’ of electric
efficiency project measures – lighting, HVAC refrigeration, air compressors,
fans and motors, and custom projects posted to the Web. The goal is to make
those applications web-based, self-populating and self-calculating. However,
technical delays have slowed progress. So, for now, the lighting application
posted at the site is a temporary PDF version that applicants will have to
download and complete by hand. In that sense it is not unlike the applications
the program has used in the past.

Revising the Electric
Efficiency Program

The Agency’s electric efficiency program is undergoing an evaluation from
CLEAResult, one of the nation’s leading firms in the area of electric efficiency
program implementation and evaluation. The goals are to provide an evaluation of
past results and gather recommendations for moving forward.

CLEAResult’s recommendations are to align the program – especially the
Commercial/Industrial program – more closely with the prescriptions of the
Illinois Statewide Technical Reference
Manual for Energy Efficiency (known as the TRM), which describes the
guidelines under which the state’s investor owned utilities’ electric efficiency
programs must operate. In addition being considered best practices in the state,
it’s possible that if the state’s compliance program for the federal Clean Power
Plan includes the granting of CO2 allowances for electrical
efficiency programs, then only those programs that operate in adherence to the
TRM would qualify to earn allowances.

The Commercial/Industrial
and Public Sector Projects Program

On the Commercial/Industrial and Public Sector Projects side of the
Agency’s program, moving toward a program that is more in step with the TRM
involves some changes to the way the program operates and calculates kWh
savings.

CLEAResult has recommended that IMEA rework its program application and
procedures in order to coordinate with energy savings calculators that
CLEAResult is building for IMEA and to make the application process more
user-friendly to applicants.

For 2016-17, incentive levels
have dipped slightly, to bring the program’s cost effectiveness in line with the
industry average and the number of allowable measures will decrease to exclude
measures that are outside the TRM.

New Commercial/Industrial and Public Sector Applications and
Procedures

Rather than one application that seeks to cover all
possible measures that are eligible to receive incentives, going forward, there are likely to be six distinct types
of applications. Each application will cover a specific “family” of measures.
The “families” and their measures are as follows.

6.
Custom Projects:
The measures are measures not listed as one of the prescriptive measures above.
Certain motors and power factor correction projects may be examples of
acceptable Custom Projects. IMEA will evaluate Custom Project applications and
will require additional measurement and verification for all Custom Projects.
IMEA will not give Notice to Proceed to any project that relies on changes in
customer behavior to obtain electricity savings and is highly unlikely to give
Notice to Proceed to any project for measures that are not covered in the Illinois Statewide
Technical Reference Manual
for Energy Efficiency.

If an electric efficiency project at a specific facility encompasses more than one “family” of electric efficiency measures, then the applicant must divide the project into multiple projects by family and submit one project application per family of measures.

Roll Out Date for the FY2016-17 Commercial/Industrial and
Public-Sector Projects Program

As CLEAResult delivers energy savings calculators to IMEA, the Agency will
then make applications and post them to the Web. That process has begun and will
continue until an application for each family of measures is in place. The
lighting application was first because historically lighting measures have
accounted for more than 85% of the Agency’s Commercial/Industrial electric
efficiency projects. The other application forms will follow as soon as
possible.

Other Procedures and Features of the Commercial/Industrial
and Public Sector Program

The program operates much as it has in the past. The basic process is:

1.Applicants send the
pre-application to IMEA to review.

2.IMEA reviews the
application and then sends it to the appropriate IMEA board member, who works
with city officials to determine the amount
of the incentive amount to grant to the project. (Members can grant a project
anywhere from $0 to the maximum amount for which it qualifies.)

3.IMEA issues a Notice
to Proceed to the applicant.

4.The applicant does
the project and sends a final application to IMEA to review.

5.IMEA reviews the
final application, pays the incentive and reports to the member.

Going forward, applications will be accepted on a rolling basis
(until a member municipality’s funding is completely allocated) and IMEA
board members will be asked to provide a decision on incentive levels within two
weeks of receiving a pre-application.

As in the past, any
Member that wants to use all or part of its Commercial/Industrial incentive
funds to operate a locally administered residential program may do so. The city
must first get approval from IMEA and demonstrate how it will account for
funding and deem kWh savings according to the methodology described in the
Illinois Statewide Technical Reference
Manual for Energy Efficiency.

Residential Measures

For Fiscal Year 2016-17, the IMEA continues the Recycle My Fridge program
and will seek to develop additional residential offerings administered at IMEA.

Recycle My Fridge

People who receive their electricity from an IMEA-member
electric system have an easy way to get rid of an unwanted freezer or
refrigerator taking up space in the basement or garage.

For doing so, they will receive a $50 prepaid card.
Residents of owner-occupied homes can schedule an appointment to have their
refrigerator or freezer picked up from inside their homes, free of charge, by
calling 877-341-2313 (toll free) or visiting the program’s Web site (www.RecycleMyFridge.org).
The unit is then properly recycled.